Dollar Mixed After Recovering From Early Losses

8/29/2017 2:50 PM ET

The dollar is turning in a mixed performance against its major rivals Tuesday afternoon, after paring early losses. The buck remains down slightly against its major European rivals, but is gaining ground against the Japanese Yen.

Investors have turned more risk averse after North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Japan, reigniting geopolitical worries.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described the missile launch as "an unprecedented, serious and grave threat" to Asia's second-largest economy, adding that he and U.S. President Donald Trump are in complete agreement to hike pressure on North Korea.

Consumer confidence for August came in better than expected this morning, while the S&P Case-Shiller HPI data came in somewhat softer than expectations. Traders are looking forward to the release of private sector employment and GDP data tomorrow morning, while the U.S. employment report for August is slated for Friday.

The dollar sank to over a 2-year low of $1.2069 against the Euro Tuesday morning, but has since bounced back to around $1.1990.

German consumer confidence is set to strengthen in September, survey data from the market research group GfK showed Tuesday. The forward-looking consumer sentiment index rose to 10.9 in September from 10.8 in August. The score was forecast to remain unchanged at 10.8.

France's economic growth held steady in the second quarter as initially estimated, latest figures from the statistical office Insee showed Tuesday. Gross domestic product expanded 0.5 percent sequentially, the same pace of growth as seen in the first quarter. That was in line with the flash data published on July 28.

House prices increased 2.1 percent year-on-year in August, slower than the 2.9 percent growth seen in July, data published by the Nationwide Building Society showed Tuesday.

This was also weaker than the expected growth of 2.5 percent. A similar pace of slower expansion was last seen in May.

The greenback slipped to an early low of Y108.257 against the Japanese Yen Tuesday, but has since climbed to around Y109.475.

The jobless rate in Japan came in at a seasonally adjusted 2.8 percent in July, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Tuesday, in line with expectations and unchanged from the June reading.

The number of employed persons in July was 65.63 million, an increase of 590,000 or 0.9 percent on year.

The average of household spending in Japan was down 0.2 percent on year in July, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Tuesday, coming in at 279,197 yen. That missed forecasts for an increase of 0.7 percent following the 2.3 percent jump in the previous month.